Serving in the Mexico Mérida Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Monday, August 25, 2014

De-Stressing Myself

Hola Family,

We spent the first half of the
week doing day trainings on Stress Management, and it went really fantastically
well. I was surprised at how dramatically the missionaries responded to it-- it
really was an answer to everybody's prayers. My birthday was muy feliz. :) (very happy)

Hermanas Torales, De Leon, Birthday Girl, and Castro

My birthday dinner after the "Adapting to Missionary Life"
capacitacion (training) in Campeche.
What missionary gets to go to the beach on their birthday, do stress management exercises, hang out with President and the Assistants all day, and then go out
to dinner? The cheesecake was free-- they even sang to me. The red guayabera
(little jacket) I’m wearing was a gift from Hermano Jesus (convert from Garcia Gineres) who FOUND
me in Terranova to give it to me.

I definitely needed somebody to tell me I was stressed. I
didn’t realize I was until I went to the “Adaping to Missionary Life” manual and
started using some of the suggestions. I also didn’t realize how much stress
can affect your ability to feel the spirit until I started de-stressing myself
and felt completely different. The Spirit is the best.

I’m trying to get rid of the mindset that everything depends on me because I
think that is the biggest source of my stress. It’s true that we need to be
agents that act and not be acted upon, but it’s also pride when I think that I
have to do everything because the situation depends on me. It sure feels a lot
better to think that it all depends on Heavenly Father. The eternal
perspective takes away a lot of stress. :) I have the responsibility to do all
that I can for him in every situation I’m in, but I don’t need to think that a
fault in my personal performance is going to impede how things turn out in
Heavenly Father’s plan.

An awesome quote by LeGrande Richards: “It’s the Lord’s Church, so I let Him
worry about it.” Everybody should use that manual. It should be called “Adapting to Life.”

With the sisters I’m visiting, we focus a lot on teaching
toward a very specific objective, which is the missionary purpose-- building faith to the point of repentance
and baptism. It’s very easy to waste a LOT of time in teaching. There are
lots of lovely things to say about the gospel and you can have lessons full of
lovely things and make people feel good, but there are very SPECIFIC things you
need to teach people to convert them. What you need to say is different
for every person.

And so in every lesson and with every individual, it takes a bit of analysis:

What does this person not understand that is impeding them
to be able to come unto Christ?'

It could be something fundamental, like not
knowing God exists.

It could be that they don’t understand that
Christ could help them with the specific burden they are carrying.

It could be that they don’t understand why
baptism is necessary or why it is that our baptism is different.

It could be that they don’t know they are
sinning, or that it’s possible to be clean from sin.

They might not understand that faith is a
decision, or that they can trust the promises God makes if they keep the
commandments.

There are a bazillion different
reasons people don’t come unto Christ, and it
usually boils down to something they don't understand. Good thing we are
teachers! We just have to make sure we are teaching to that specific thing that
is impeding them.

I am so happy because I feel
real love for the sisters I am working with. I always am nervous going into the
intercambio (missionary exchange),
but it always turns out that we become really good friends.

Called to Serve

Lia Loves Letters

Please select "Pouch Free" from the column on the left! They will print and deliver your message to Lia in México!

The kind of faith I want to have...

"The spirit of this work is urgency... We must move more rapidly. We must take things up a notch. If we have to call down miracles of angels, then call them down. The drama is unfolding and we must do whatever it takes to ratchet up the work... Every dispensation begins with a vision. We must have a vision. We are the church that dreams dreams. We are the church that has visions. We must believe in miracles. We must believe and build on what our forefathers have done…We must live up to our potential. God will bless us with whatever we need. God wants us to just see what He sees and know what He knows. He wants us to ratchet up the vision. God is easy to please and hard to satisfy...This is not convenient, easy work. We have got to take things to the edge. We have to move into the realm of the miraculous. We have to live in such a way that we cannot do it alone anymore- where we will resort to the Lord--where we will cry, “Without thy help, I will fall. Help me fly.” Go to the edge where miracles happen. Move into the realm of the miraculous." --Elder Jeffrey R. Holland